She Traverses the Darkness: A Sequel to 'From Within the Trees'
by Starshot151
Summary: Ally hasn't been contacted by Jen in over three months. With the help of her friend Jordan, she travels to Jen's last residence and starts to investigate what happened to her friend. Little does she know, her thirst for finding out what happened to Jen will put her life in incredible danger, her possible threat lurking just outside the window. Slenderman fic.
1. Chapter 1: Voicemail

_...sorry I can't get to the phone right now, just leave your number or a quick message and I'll get back to you soon, promise! _

Ally's phone echoed that message over and over, burning it into her mind. Why hasn't she called her, texted her, anything? It was unusual for her to not answer her phone, let alone not answer it for three months. No missing person cases concerned her, and no one rang to ask where she had gone, or to deliver the news of her whereabouts.

No one knew that Jen had disappeared.

Ever since Jen had moved away to start her new life with her brothers in a quaint little house near the woods, Ally had been keeping in touch with Jen every day since her move. For her to skip even one day of contact was absurd in Ally's way of thinking. She brushed her dyed pink hair out of her eyes and started a call on Skype, her thick framed glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose.

"Hey Jordan, remember my friend Jen from a while ago back in 8th grade?" Ally asked.

Jordan let out a small chuckle, then his face grew concerned.

"Yeah, I do. She hasn't contacted you, hasn't she."

"Nope. Here's the plot twist: she hasn't contacted me for three months."

Jordan's face dropped before he continued.

"Well, in the time that you told me how long she hasn't contacted you for, I have discovered the address of where she apparently lives now. according to the council, the place has been left to decay, while letting residents still live there as long as they do maintenance. I'll take you, I'm due to go there to visit cousins anyway."

Jordan was quite a gifted person with computers, especially gifted with their illegal capabilities. Ally had no trouble asking for permission to go with Jordan, as her parents were divorced and her mother was drunk most of her time. After a slurred 'yes', Ally threw a few necessities into a small suitcase and ran out the door to find Jordan standing in front of his car, pulling an obviously fake 'cool kid' pose, his oily, black hair obstructing his face.

"Come on, we need to go. I'll have to fill you in on the nitty gritty details along the way, unfortunately." Jordan said with a grimace.

"Nitty gritty?" asked Ally inquisitively. She felt her heart drop, fretting about what had happened to her best friend.

Half of the ride with Jordan was in complete silence, excluding the radio softly playing classic rock songs handpicked by him. Ally gathered her courage and asked Jordan about these 'nitty gritty' details he was talking about earlier.

"I was hoping you'd never ask." Jordan sighed. "See, Jen's brothers were killed by a serial killer on the loose in her town, he was described as being a caucasian man wearing a white mask and was wearing a suit. Sounds to me like he was trying to impersonate...the Tall One, to me."

"The Tall One?" Ally repeated.

"Oh geez, Ally, you need to get on the internet more. The Tall One is another name for Slenderman. Surely you've heard of him at least once. Maybe on a creepypasta or something. The Operator? The Faceless One? Nothing? No?"

The radio started emitting quiet static. Jordan froze.

"...anyway, This guy killed Jen's brothers, causing major shit for her. She soon went to live with her aunt Lily and started going to school again to try and fit into normal society. Soon, the killer's body was found in some local woods Jen lives near. Seems a little fishy to me. But anyway, continuing on, Lily was declared missing after a bit, but surprisingly, Jen wasn't a suspect, nor was there any evidence found relating to her. Then soon after that, a young girl's body was found badly mutilated in – don't give me that look, you asked for all the nitty gritty details – in the forest a few nights later, but the body wasn't identified to be Jen's, relax. So we don't know whether she's still alive, dead or whether she was...taken."

"Did you get classified police files on this?"

"Maybe."

"Jordan...who is the Slenderman?"

The radio's static slowly grew louder. Jordan froze once again, his hands gripping the steering wheel.

"...that's something you should find out in your own time."

Jordan pulled up to the run down apartment Lily and Jen used to live in. Ally set up a sleeping bag on one of the lounges and proceeded to pull out her laptop. She plugged her 3G modem into the USB port and typed Slenderman into Google, both scared and excited about what she would find out about this mysterious entity, not noticing a presence lurking just outside the window of the apartment.

"Now...who the hell are you?"

Ally had refused to sleep that night after discovering just who Slenderman was, researching his origins, his behaviour and the various symptoms you suffer from when you are being hunted down by him. She barely managed to get through the night by convincing herself that he was a story made up by the cruelest inhabitants of the internet. Feeling safe, Ally walked towards the window to close the blinds and attempt to get a few hours sleep. As she was about to pull the cord to bring the blind down, she noticed a thin figure standing on the street outside opposite the building.

She ran.

All around the apartment, she was followed by elongated shadows of a tall man appearing to wear a suit. The shadows moved swiftly as the being took enormous strides with its seemingly endless legs following her at every corner. Ally was soon cornered in Jen's old bedroom, defenceless against this monster after her. Spindly, pale fingers wrapped one by one around the edge of the door before gently opening it, with a creak, revealing the cowering girl inside. The entity ducked its head underneath the doorframe and entered the bedroom. Doing the only thing she could, Ally threw her phone, accidentally pressing one of the buttons, activating the home screen, at the being. She threw it in vain, the being having caught it with a tendril, the phone's light bouncing off the being's blank, faceless space. He looked down at the wallpaper glowing.

It was a picture of Ally and Jen.

Bringing the phone down to his side, he lowered his tendrils and gracefully walked over to Ally. He knelt down in front of her and offered the phone back to her with an outstretched arm. With caution, she received the phone from his hand and looked up at him with confusion.

"_You knew her?"_


	2. Chapter 2: Come Alone

Ally analysed this creature kneeling before her up and down tenfold. Her mind raced before she fully absorbed the words Slenderman spoke to her as she took her phone from the palm of his hand.

"Wait, you can talk?" Ally managed to spit out.

"_Because I don't physically appear to have a mouth...at the moment, doesn't mean that I can't speak."_

"Also, why aren't I splattered all over the walls yet?"

"_You knew someone I had a..."_

"A what? A what?!"

Three loud knocks on the door and a sing-song 'Ally!' startled Ally and the Slenderman as their necks whipped their heads towards the splintering door. Sensing a threat, Slenderman let his tendrils emerge and orbit around him as he slowly arose to greet the stranger waiting outside. Ally looked up at the towering figure and realised; Jordan was in danger.

Feeling the adrenaline take over her legs, Ally dropped her phone, sprinted towards the door, speeding past Slenderman, opened the door and grabbed Jordan by the hand and tugged him away. Screaming a 'HURRY' at the top of her lungs, Jordan's last sight of the apartment was the Slenderman, hurdling towards the door. Jordan slammed the door shut on Slenderman, and the two of them bolted for their lives down the stairs of the apartment block and out onto the street in the darkness. Slenderman picked up Ally's phone and pocketed it in his blazer pocket.

"THE FUCK WAS THAT-"

"THAT'S YOUR GOOD BUDDY, SLENDY." Ally answered.

"WHY WAS HE IN THERE WITH YOU AND WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD YET?!"

"...I'll answer that when we find a safe spot."

The two camped out at Jordan's cousin's house at the cost of leaving all of the necessities Ally had behind at the apartment. Ally spilled all she could concerning her encounter a while ago in the apartment. Jordan listened intently, and his face dropped when Ally confessed she lost her phone back there.

"You've got to be kidding. Now that freak has your phone. Shit."

"That _freak_ has something to do with Jen, and now he knows that I was friends with Jen. I don't think that's the last time I'll see him. But what annoys me is that he acted especially hostile towards you. Any ideas why?"

"Could be that I spend too much time on the internet." Jordan joked.

"...that actually could be the reason. Want me to ask him for you next time he pays a visit?"

"You are NOT going anywhere without me."

"And by parenting me, you'll put both of us in danger, considering he was more violent towards you."

The two sat in silence, contemplating and considering plans on how to counter the Slenderman and how to extract information on Jen's disappearance. Moments later, Jordan's phone started vibrating in his pocket, diving his hand into his jeans, he grabbed it and looked at the home screen.

It was Ally's number.

His face was going pale. He turned to Ally and said it was for her, from her phone. With no hesitation, she snatched the phone away from Jordan's hand and placed it up to her ear. From the suggestion of Jordan, she placed it on speaker instead and listened carefully for a trace of a voice through the static.

"_I'm sure you have many questions you want answered about Jen, human. All will be answered soon enough. If you want, however, meet me in the forest outside a little nook in a tree covered by a shrub. Follow the trail and you will know when you see it. Come alone, I don't want to have any more...incidents tonight. I can promise you, no harm will come to you during this meeting. Good evening."_

The phone started to beep as Ally locked it and passed it to Jordan. He nodded as he watched Ally rise from her seat and walk towards the door. After hearing Jordan exclaim how she had better be alive and in one piece, she exited the house and journeyed towards the forest trail.

The moonlight glimmered and danced off the moist leaves from the recent rain. The trail was muddy and sticky, coating the bottom of Ally's shoes with a thick mud cement which collected various leaves and twigs when she continued to trudge in the night air. Her heart pounding out of her chest, she wiped her sweating hands on her jeans and scanned the trees for a sight of Slenderman. From behind one of them, he emerged, with his hands held behind his back as he calmly strolled over to a shaking Ally. He bowed slightly and offered a handshake towards her. Reluctantly accepting the handshake, she found herself swung up by her feet by a tendril, knocking her glasses off, and met eyes with an upside-down Slenderman. After letting out a scream, Slenderman chuckled darkly and flipped Ally around and set her down on the ground again. Shaking even more, Ally picked up her glasses, looked up to Slenderman and opened her mouth to speak.

"I guess you could say that you...swept me off my feet! Huh? Huh?" she joked, trying to relax herself.

Slenderman smacked his blank face with his palm and rubbed the dents of where eyes should be with pale fingers in frustration while cringing.

"_I should decapitate you just for making that wisecrack. Funnily enough, that was the icebreaker needed to begin."_

Ally took in a deep breath and proceeded to ask her first question.

"What happened to Jen?"

The pair stood in silence as Ally waited for her answer.


	3. Chapter 3: Where Flowers Grow

"_...she's dead."_

Ally's jaw dropped.

"You...you killed her didn't you?! YOU KILLED HER!"

"_Yes, but-"_

"WHY DID YOU DO IT?! HUH?! FOR A QUICK FIX-"

"_I swear to the highest deity if you do not keep your mouth shut-"_

"I WILL AVENGE HER! I-"

Ally's mouth was then covered by a tendril which was wrapping around her head.

"_You're much noisier than Jen ever was. If you were so kind as to let me finish, I would've explained."_

Ally's bright pink head bobbed up and down as the tendril slowly unwound from her mouth. As Slenderman took a breath to begin, he stopped and held his hand out towards Ally, beckoning her to join him on a walk somewhere he knew in the forest. Her hand never left his, as she was too scared to run. The only time their hands disconnected was for Ally to wipe the sweat from hers onto her jeans, only to have her hand snatched back up again by Slenderman's bony fingers. After approximately fifteen minutes into the walk, the sound of footsteps, a camera shutter and shuffling. Slenderman's arm tensed up as he stared intensely through the dense trees and out into an upcoming clearing.

He swiftly scooped up Ally onto his back, warning her to hold on tight. She buried her head into the back of Slenderman's blazer, as he rapidly increased his speed, dodging the branches and roots that lay obstructively in his path. Through blinding tears from the wind, Ally tried to see just how fast she was going, only to be greeted by a blur of green and brown racing past her. Soon the two reached their destination. Ally was thrown from his back as she landed onto the damp grass, staining her clothes. After hearing a loud _thump_ and the sound of someone choking, she sat straight back up, her back and tailbone aching. The sight of Jordan being pinned to the ground by Slenderman with tendrils pointed at Jordan's adam's apple. Out of the corner of his eye, Jordan made out Ally's blurred figure and spontaneously had a surge of courage. He pulled a pocket knife from his jeans and pierced Slenderman's abdominals, drawing out a strange, black liquid. Jordan managed to stab him three more times with more hidden knives before being hauled up by a single tendril to meet Slenderman's eye level. Ally cried out for him to be put down, in fear of her friend's life. Two heads were turned towards her, as Jordan was carefully being placed onto the ground again, falling to his knees coughing and gasping for breath.

"_You have questions to answer, boy."_

The tall figure's attention was drawn to the knives sticking out of his abdominal area. He carelessly plucked each one out of him, dropping to the ground coated in a thick, black substance. Noticing that his shirt was badly stained, he moved his head in the same way that people roll their eyes, and proceeded to take off his blazer, tossing it aside next to Ally.

"_If you'll excuse me."_

He submerged himself into the dense foliage surrounding the two humans, leaving them alone. Knowing that it is pointless to escape, they sat there in suspense. Ally noticed that the blazer was sitting next to her in a crumpled heap. Unable to resist her childish urges, she picked up the blazer and dusted the grass and dust off to try it on. With an 'oh for God's sake' emitting from Jordan's general direction, Ally soon realised that her arms didn't reach halfway down the sleeves and the back of the blazer was still lying crumpled on the floor. Remembering that Slenderman can stretch his limbs, she tried to tug on one of the sleeves to see if it would stretch. To her surprise, it was made out of the same material that regular human blazers are fabricated out of. Jordan dashed over to pick up the knives and he pocketed them, still covered in the black liquid. To her surprise, Ally felt herself being lifted up, gradually sliding out of the blazer to be greeted by an amused Slenderman with a mysteriously clean shirt.

"How did you get that out?" Ally wondered.

"_That's for me only to know." _Slenderman answered, appearing to be smirking.

"By the way, this is just normal blazer material, how do you make it stretch?"

"_Age old secret. I'll never tell." _he chuckled menacingly.

Ally's senses started to detect that she was in a completely unfamiliar area. The trees towered intimidatingly above her, feeling smaller than she did when she was in Slenderman's presence. This part of the forest seemed to be the only part of it where flowers grew.

"...where are we?"

Three heads turned towards a roughly put together wooden box with a loosely attached lid sitting on top. Slenderman, Jordan and Ally soon discover that the lid has been tampered with. Slenderman looks furiously at Jordan as the boy's eyes fill with fear.

The box was open.

Jen's body was gone.


	4. Chapter 4: Surprise

The furiously trembling body of the Slenderman turned menacingly to face Jordan. His pale, bony fingers curled up into raging fists as his tendrils unravelled and pointed towards the boy. Ally tried to slowly back away but a twig she stepped on with an audible _crack_ gave away her intentions to escape. Realising this, a tendril shot out like a bullet towards Ally and wrapped around her, constricting her chest. He rapidly hurled Jordan up to Slenderman's blank face, started shaking him like a rag doll and screamed at him with such strong emotion that even the Slenderman didn't fully understand what he was feeling.

"_WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?!"_

"...n-nothing..." Jordan choked, barely getting the words out of his mouth, "I...barely...got close to...the box...look at...the camera-"

"_LIAR!"_

Remembering something he had hidden before he ventured out into the forest, Jordan pulled two more knives from his sleeves by shaking the freer parts of his arms, causing them to slide down his biceps and forearms. He threw one at Ally who managed to wriggle one of her arms free from the constricting tendril. She caught it swiftly, and simultaneously cut themselves free by slicing the tendrils trapping them in Slenderman's grasp. With a howl of pain coming from the faceless entity, Jordan ushered a gesture to the camera lying on the damp grass, telling her to grab it as quickly as she could. Ally leapt over to the camera, snatched it and stumbled across the uneven terrain towards the wincing Slenderman. She shoved the camera into his faceless canvas and desperately told him to look at the photos. Staring straight into Ally's eyes, he cautiously took the camera from her hand and stood up straight again.

"Sorry I cut your...tendril-things. You were on a rage there." Ally apologised.

"_I can forgive you this once. A fit of anger like this never happens to me like this. Thank you for snapping me out of it."_

"By the way, can I have my phone back?"

Letting a small chuckle escape him, Slenderman reached into his blazer pocket and revealed a perfectly kept phone. Ally thanked him and took the phone from him and pocketed it in her jeans. After embarassingly asking how to use this camera, only to get a response of 'you should know, you called me on my phone, and people have tried to film you...', replying with _'I usually destroy cameras, not use them'_, he managed to open the album where Jordan was taking photos.

The three gathered around the scratched camera to see what it had to behold.

The box was already open by the time Jordan got there.

After a few moments of shocked silence, Ally finally broke the ice between them all.

"Okay, so we have a few different theories here. Theory number one: Jordan took the body from the box either in a remarkable amount of time just now, or on a previous visit." Slenderman's glare grew stronger towards Jordan. Ally continued, "Theory number two: Someone else we don't know found the body and stole it. Theory number three: Jen isn't dead."

Jordan and the Slenderman exchanged looks of confusion and disbelief. Ally soon felt a hot flush crawl over her skin, shifting into a bright red glow. After arguing that it was a possible option, she was finally silenced by Slenderman's certain tone in his voice when stating that she died at his hands and that he saw it for himself.

"Wait a sec, how long has Jen been dead for?"

"_Hmm. I would say about three to four days?"_

"One more question, Mr Slenderman."

"_Why the formalities? But go on."_

"Why are you so hostile towards Jordan especially?"

Slenderman stood in silence for a few moments before giving his answer.

"_This isn't the first time I've seen him in these parts. I've seen him all over this area, writing notes, taking pictures, interviewing people. He is either trying to investigate myself, or to investigate Jen. I couldn't let him get in the way of me, or get to her. He's impressively escaped me, however, I let him go just to see what he would do next. But him entering this part of the forest without my supervision and permission stirred me up the most."_

Ally's eyes shifted over to the boy's guilt-stricken face. He lifted his hands up in a surrendering motion with a shy grin spreading over his face.

"Guilty as charged." he laughed.

Slenderman strode over to the box and noticed small, but fresh, smudges of blood on the side of it. He smeared blood onto his finger and stared at it before turning to face away from the two humans.

"_I can't allow you to see this. At least, not now." _

He ripped open a small hole in his blank face, just enough for a tongue and a few teeth to show. He licked the blood dripping down his finger and sampled it.

"_The thief is not far away. I know his identity now." _He muttered. _"You two, remain."_

Slenderman left behind an awestruck Ally and Jordan in the clearing. They looked each other, nodded and waited until he was a considerable distance away before pursuing him in his search.

They ran.

Slenderman could hear shuffling footsteps and the sound of struggle. A woman's panting breath, and a man's vicious screams filled the air.

"GET UP YOU FUCKING BITCH! YOU KNOW WHO TOOK MY STEPHANIE, DON'T YOU?!"

"NO! I SWEAR TO GOD! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT!"

"THEN WHY WERE YOU IN THAT FUCKING GODFORSAKEN BOX MADE BY THAT...THAT MONSTER?!"

"...monster?"

"HA! YOU DO KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! IT'S FUCKING TALL, AND WEARS A SUIT! AND IT'S FACE.."

"...oh no, you don't mean-"

The Slenderman thought he was hallucinating when he saw a middle aged man pinning a barely alive Jen to the ground with a knife to her throat. The desperate, feral look in his eyes never noticed the tall figure hiding in the trees.

Ally and Jordan weren't far behind, and chose to hide behind some bushes while waiting for the Slenderman to reveal himself. Jordan covered Ally's mouth to prevent her to scream out Jen's name when she saw her bloody figure on the floor.

"_Jen?"_

The young girl's heart froze when she heard that too-familiar, unnaturally smooth voice echoing from the darkness of the foliage. The man looked straight up into the stomach of Slenderman, towering over him and let out an unholy scream as he tried to run, stumbling away. His foot was caught by a tendril and ripped off from the rest of his leg. More tendrils pierced the man's stomach and strung out his organs one by one, staining the grass with a thick, sticky red blood coating. The man's eyeballs bounced and rolled right next to the organs rotting in the sunlight as Ally and Jordan watched frozen in horror.

"_Found you." _Slenderman said to what was left of the body. He turned towards Jen and offered a hand to help her get up. _"Are you alright?"_

"You have no idea how good it is to see you again."

"JEN!" Ally cried, giving away her hiding spot.

Abandoning a facepalming Jordan, she clumsily ran over to her injured friend and knocked her out of Slenderman's grasp with a bone crushing hug.

"HOW IN THE HELL ARE YOU ALIVE OH MY GOD I'VE MISSED YOU WHY HAVEN'T YOU CALLED ME YOU HAD ME WORRIED SICK NEVER DO THIS TO ME AGAIN I HATE YOU NO NO I'M SORRY I LOVE YOU I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU-"

"_You followed."_

Ally guiltily looked up at Slenderman and shyly apologised. Brushing her off with a lazy gesture, he confronted Jen by asking how she was still living.

"_I killed you like you asked me to. How are you still alive?"_

"Haha, turns out the stab wounds Marie gave me missed my vitals. So all you really did was put me into a deep sleep." Jen answered, smothered into Ally.

Slenderman freed Jen from Ally's deadly grip and turned to face Ally and Jordan.

"_Well, now you have found out about the condition of your companion, and so have I. And now that I have her..."_

He paused, leaving the two in suspense.

"_...I won't be needing any of you."_

**(sorry about the late update! writer's block sucks ;A;)**


	5. Chapter 5: Page One

The chilling, hair raising sensation of fear accompanied the feeling of both Ally and Jordan's hearts uneasily sliding to writhe in the bottom of their stomachs. Their eyes slid over to Jen, who simply stared at them with lifeless eyes, robbed of any form of innocence as the terrifyingly tall figure withdrew his hands from behind his back, preparing to perform his deeds. With blind courage, Ally spontaneously grabbed Jen's hand as her and Jordan ran as fast as they could through the dense trees, leaving Slenderman standing there all by his lonesome. With a tiny laugh escaping him, he turned towards an especially crowded set of trees and started to smile, revealing his somewhat pearl white teeth, sharpened like knives.

"_This will be fun. Jen will fall back into my grasp, no matter the cost."_

He disappeared.

The three, out of breath humans stumbled onto the main road which was deserted, not a car in sight. Out of the corner of Jen's eye, she saw the tall figure casually strolling towards the trio, tendrils emerging and swaying gently. Jen pointed a finger to the man, directing the attention of Ally and Jordan. Ally let out a blood curdling scream and tugged the two petrified teenagers towards Jordan's cousin's house at top speed. The silhouette of the house gradually came into view as their lungs cramped and screamed out to them to rest. With Ally's somewhat encouraging words of 'RUN, FUCKING RUN', Jen was suddenly filled with a great motivation and soon began tugging Ally and Jordan instead.

Once the house had been reached, Jordan came screeching to a halt and pulled out of his pocket a large ring of keys. His hands shaking like a madman, he fumbled with the keys, sweat pouring down his face. His breath was growing faster and faster, his heart struggling to keep up with the intense adrenaline flowing through his veins. His mouth grew dry as he turned around to see the Slenderman at a far distance, still walking at a casual pace to meet with Ally and Jordan's fate. He shoved the keys back into his pocket and told the two girls to move out of the way, and with a mighty kick to the door, it flew open and allowed the three to stumble in and slam the door shut and lock it.

"Grab what you need and lets get out of here!" Jordan commanded.

Slenderman stood outside the door, his knuckles ready to knock a few times on the door. He could hear the sound of rustling and doors opening and closing. The pitter-patter of the human's footsteps made him itch to burst in there and let the blood spray all over the walls. His skin crawled with anticipation, his fingers twitching as he listened for any signs of Jen.

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

"DON'T ANSWER IT!" Jen cried out to Ally and Jordan. "I'VE SEEN THIS BEFORE."

"_Helping them, are you?" _Slenderman questioned. _"Come now, Jen, you've seen what happens when I knock. Give it up. Come home."_

"Come home?!" Ally spat at Jen. "You've been living with him?!"

"I know what she is, Ally." Jordan sneered. "She's a fucking PROXY!"

"Proxy?!" Jen and Ally exclaimed.

"LISTEN TO ME! BOTH OF YOU!" Jen desperately wailed.

The door handle started to turn.

"If you want to live even a day longer, trust me."

"_Resistance is futile, Jen. I thought you would know that by now."_

Jen leaned up to Jordan's ear.

"Charge through the door. It will knock him off his feet. Then, run for your goddamn life." she whispered.

"I swear to God if this gets me killed, I will haunt you until you die."

Jordan took a few steps back in preparation and bent his legs, ready for a sprint. He took off, running at his top speed. With a loud _crash_ he collided with the front door, sending it flying open, an audible _thump_ confirming that Slenderman was hit and sent stumbling backwards, stunned at the sudden impact. The three humans came sprinting out of the house, backpacks filled with necessities and were off on their way down the road. Slenderman recovered a few seconds later and realised that his prey was already out of his reach. He sighed and muttered to himself, _'the sickness it is.'_ and returned to the forest.

Camping out in an abandoned shed next to a DIY store, Jen told them all the story of why she came to be the object of Slenderman's observation. The story was in fragments due to having memory loss.

"So let me get this straight. You were hiding in the forest until Slenderman found you, you chose to become his plaything, you were nearly murdered by a serial killer pretending to be Slenderman, only to have him killed by the real thing, you met this chick called Marie who you weren't very good buddies with and you went camping with her, killing off her posse in the end, you snuck out at night and got your aunt killed and then a crazed up Marie comes after you and nearly stabs you to death, and you wake up in hospital covered in stab wounds and are dying a slow and painful death, only to ask Slenderman to kill you off? Then you wake up here and cause all this shit." Jordan recited.

"That's all I can remember. But I think I know where the rest of the story can be found. I wrote a journal during my time with him. Unfortunately, it's still in the forest with him."

"Fuck." Ally and Jordan sighed together.

"It's a shame. I can help you cheat death if I knew what else he did while I was in his company."

"Okay," Jordan began, "I'll go with Jen. That way, we'll probably only have two casualties instead of one. Slenderman wouldn't lay a finger on Jen, she belongs to him. I want at least one of us to live a little longer."

"No!" Ally retaliated, "I'm not going to be a sitting duck. I'm going too."

The crunching sound of gravel under one's shoes echoed outside of the shed. The three knew full well who it was. Static filled Jen's, Ally's and Jordan's ears.

"_Trying to find Jen's journal, are you? I'll play a little game with you humans. Jen only wrote in eight pages of her journal. Tonight, I will post these eight pages around the clearing which we all met before. If you successfully collect the eight pages without me catching you, I guess you can try and extend your miserable lives by a day or two. If I catch you...haha."_

"Oh my God, he's making us play Slender." Ally stammered.

Jen picked up a torch that was lying in the corner and checked to see if it had batteries.

"Let's go."


	6. Chapter 6: Be Careful What You Wish For

Jen, Ally and Jordan steadily paced towards the particular section of the forest that was directed to them by Slenderman. Their pulse accelerated as hands started to tremble in fear. The chilled, night air flowed like ice down their tracheas and began to swirl, frozen in their lungs. Jen's palm began to sweat as her hand cramped from clutching the torch tightly at her side. A note was already posted to a tree bordering the forest entrance.

_Welcome._

_I assume you came prepared with a torch. Now, I have constructed a...fence, of sorts, to outline the boundaries to this game. If you leave the boundaries of this fence, I will not hesitate to end your life without any form of last wishes. _

_You will attempt to collect all eight pages of Jen's journal without me finding or capturing you. I will function exactly how my in-game counterpart functions. You will know when I grow close. If you have happened to play this game before, then you will know. Survive as long as you can, humans._

_Let the game begin._

_P.S. This isn't the first note, just to clear any confusion._

They each simultaneously took a breath in and began to trudge along the trail, their eyes scanning every leaf of the trees in hopes of finding a note, with only a torch to keep them company. The crunching of the leaves heightened their senses with every step. Luckily for them, Jordan had mastered Slender, collecting all eight notes in record time.

"Jordan, how do we beat this game?" Ally asked.

"When I first started Slender, I learned where the boundaries where in the game, and I memorised the different landmarks that were found across the map. So first, I'm guessing we have to find where we can't go." he replied.

"Hang on a second, I can see a really thick rope over there, is that the...oh my God."

The 'rope' that caught Ally's attention was dripping with blood, and it shone with a slimy substance, the substance that coats fresh organs that have been ripped out of their bodies. The air was thick with the coppery scent of blood, which was dripping down the trunks of the trees the organs were crudely knotted around. Rivers of the thick, red ooze were running along the cracks and crevasses of the tree trunk to meet with a reeking puddle below.

"Ohh...fuck." Jordan stammered.

"Man, that handwriting is nostalgic." Jen sighed.

"We're about to go play real life Slender, with the _real _Slenderman, and all you can think about is the damn handwriting?!" Ally scolded.

"Sorry. By the way, what's Slender?" Jen asked.

"Have you been living under a rock?"

"No, but I've been unconscious in a coffin for a few days. Kinda got in the way of my internet anti-social time."

A note was found on a tree fifteen minutes later. It was something Jen couldn't remember.

_Slenderman took me out somewhere today. He claimed that it was a 'desensitising' exercise. Turns out what he meant by that was that he would take me places to watch him kill innocent people, to get me used to the sight of blood. He knocked on some poor guy's door three times. I heard the guy scream 'go away' so many times I had lost count. It was terrifying, and I wasn't the one about to be killed horribly. He took the guy by the hands and feet and ripped him clean in half in a matter of seconds. After a few more times of this, I've come to learn that whenever he knocks three times, people die quickly. If he knocks four times, he'll chase them around their house until they're cowering in a corner, waiting for him to end it. Quite traumatising actually._

A branch snapped close by.

Another note was found on a small boulder near the boundaries.

_Day whatever-it-is. The victim of this newest attack had static coming out of his mouth whenever he tried to speak, which freaked him out more. He eventually went insane while I was hiding in some bushes. This guy completely lost his mind, so much that he actually ran into the tendrils, impaling himself. Tip number 2: If you hear static coming out of your mouth whenever you try to talk, then you're done for. You might as well give up now._

They did not find a note for another hour before they realised footsteps followed the three.

They stopped.

"_Having fun?"_

The Slenderman stood tall above Jen, Ally and Jordan. Their blood ran ice cold as that chillingly smooth voice pierced their ears. All of the instincts screamed out for them to run as the static slowly filled up their ears. They ran for their lives as the static began to fade out into a slight buzz. Panting and out of breath, Jen shined the torch into the distance, but the three are startled to see a young girl, around fourteen years old, carrying a stack of notes. She was wearing a a variety of brightly coloured clothes, with a cat-ear headband sitting on top of her heavily dyed hair with a tail attached to her by a belt.

"Hello~!" The girl chimed. "Are you looking for Slendy-chan too~?"

Jen twitched and shuddered at the girl's improper use of Japanese.

"Slendy...chan?" Jen repeated.

"Haiii~! I reaally want to meet him, we are meant to be..."

"Kid, trust me. You don't want to meet him."

The girl pouted and held the notes sideways.

"Fine. If you don't let me meet him, I'll rip these notes up into teeny-tiny little pieces!" she sang.

"NO DON'T!" The humans yelled at once.

She smiled and clutched the remaining six notes to her chest.

"I guess we have a deal? Oh, and by the way, call me Tsubasa-chan~!"

_Oh good lord, weaboos. _Jordan cringed to himself.

"SUGOI HUSBANDO~! WHERE ARE YOU~?"

"I swear to God if you don't shut up I will feed you to smile dog." Jordan threatened.

"Smile dog?"

"What? You've never read any other creepypastas? Jeff the Killer? The Rake? Ben Drowned?"  
"What is a creepypasta? I only know Slender from the game."

"...Slender?"

"Yeah! Slender, my husbando~"

"His name is Slenderman, NOT SLENDER. Don't you watch any of the slender-series? You know, like Marble Hornets, TribeTwelve? People who actually have encountered Slenderman?!"

"Marble Hornets, what's that? Sounds stupid."

"I really despise people like you."

"Baka!"

Jen, Ally, Jordan and Tsubasa dragged their tired feet across the forest trail towards the exit, not noticing that it was eerily quiet. Tsubasa turned around while stretching and pointed a finger excitedly at a tall figure hiding behind one of the trees, and started to sprint straight towards him. Jen tagged behind in a vain attempt to stop her.

"YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'RE MEANT TO RUN _AWAY_!"

"Slendyyy~!"

"_Oh?"_

Tsubasa came to a screeching halt right at the Slenderman's feet. She looked up to see a blank face staring straight back at her. Her jaw dropped as her whole body froze. Tendrils began to sway as Jen tried to pull her away from him, with no success. After feeling a gust of win blow past the two, Jordan snatched the notes out of her hands and tugged Jen back to where Ally was standing, awestruck. Tsubasa was now caught in the tendrils of Slenderman, screaming at the top of her lungs. The last thing Tsubasa saw was Slenderman's smile before the both of them disappeared. The three survivors stumbled over roots of trees, dodged boulders and hurdled over bushes and shrubs, sensing a presence following them as their ears heard the sound of ripping paper.

Jordan, Ally and Jen safely made it back to the shed where they were camping and they sat in silence, thinking about Tsubasa. After an fight involving Ally and Jordan about him leaving Tsubasa there with the figure, they laid out all the notes to study. The only thing was, there were no pages of Jen's journal. What they had, was a set of Tsubasa's fanart to give to Slenderman. Jen's journal was shredded and torn in the forest. Suddenly, the door knocked four times. Jen, Ally and Jordan soon realised that the only way out was through a small window near the ceiling.

They were trapped.


	7. Chapter 7: For Another

The blood pumping through the ventricles of Ally's and Jordan's hearts was accelerating at a rapid rate as the door handle of the shed turned intimidatingly and slowly. Through the cracks of the door, slithery tendrils planted themselves onto the walls as the figure loomed in the way of the only hope of escaping. Static gradually filled the air of the shed, which pierced the ears of the three humans, cornered and terrified. Ally looked at Jen for help, yet she found her in a foetal position, with her head tucked between her knees. Giving up on her curled up friend, she jumped out of her skin as she heard heavy, roof-shaking coughing coming from Jordan's violently-writhing body. Leaping over to her suffering companion, she gripped his shoulders, trying to shake him out of a state of physical and mental breakdown. Slenderman ducked his head underneath the doorframe, to meet a now weeping Ally.

Slenderman gazed over to Jen, bracing for the sound of her friends being torn to shreds. _Good, her eyes are covered, _he thought to himself. He brought his attention over to Ally, who simply stared, ready to give up on herself and her friends. He took one step into the shed, and brought his hands together, interlacing his fingers within one another as he brought his tendrils to ease.

"_Remember when I turned away from you when I opened my mouth? People only see it, when they're about to die."_

A cold shiver violently shook its way down Ally's spine as her eyes widened as far as they could go. Slenderman brought himself low to a crouch, almost as if he was pouncing. He withdrew his tendrils back behind him, aiming straight for Ally, with Jen hiding behind her. Ally thought she was hallucinating when she saw tiny rips form in Slenderman's blank face, ripping even further to reveal a horrifying mouth, grinning psychotically to greet her. He opened his mouth wider as he began to laugh quietly, but darkly, as tendrils flew at an amazing speed towards Ally. But they did not reach her. Ally felt a gust of wind blow past her as she saw a figure with chestnut brown hair performing a leap of faith towards the entity.

Slenderman could taste blood in his mouth.

Jen's blood.

She screamed in pain as the teeth sank into her shoulders and chest, drawing rivers of blood which ran down her shirt, staining it. Her arms were wrapped around the Slenderman's torso tightly, and her shoulders began to heave as tear stains left their mark in the blazer.

"ENOUGH!" Jen wailed.

The entire shed was filled with a deafening silence as Jordan's coughing was brought to an end, only being broken by Jen's cries.

"THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH! I'll go back with you, you're all I have...but please leave them alone." she begged.

Slenderman gently removed his teeth from Jen's body and closed his mouth, repairing the rips in his face. He looked up at the petrified pair of humans, and scanned them closely, like he was choosing a target to prey upon.

"_Unfortunately, Jen, I never make these promises without one life taken by me as compensation."_

Jordan slowly stood up and faced Slenderman.

"I'll make you a deal. I'll play hide and seek with you. I'll hide, and if you can find me within 24 hours, I'll give up. Boom. Dead."

"JORDAN NO!" Ally pleaded.

Jen's grip on Slenderman's blazer grew tighter and her heaves grew heavier.

"_You're willing to compensate for the girl's life being spared?" _Slenderman questioned.

"...yeah. She's a lot closer to Jen than I ever was. She's more suitable."

"JORDAN DON'T DO THIS!"

"_I will give you one hour to hide."_

Jordan nodded and smiled at Ally before he stepped over Slenderman and left the shed, drawing one of his pocket knives and throwing it to her.

"Take care, Ally." He smiled.

Jordan disappeared into the night.

"_I would run too if I were you, girl. Go to the apartment and collect your belongings, you will no longer be residing there." _Slenderman threatened.

"Wait! I have one question to ask before I go."

"_I will answer." _Slenderman replied.

"What's your relationship with Jen?"

He waited a few moments before he answered. He glanced down at Jen.

"_I merely kept her alive to observe her habits and actions in certain situations, to see what she feared and what she was comfortable with. Originally, this was a technique developed by myself to target humans more easily. But after I had to tend to her to stop her from ending her own life from my extended company, her presence soon evolved to be rather tolerable, I had no issues with having to tend to her psychological needs, to keep her sane. She soon started to develop an emotional attachment to me, as she has nobody left, as the last of her close family was killed by my impostor. No one to turn to, except myself. I would say she is a pet, but it is puzzling to me how I find it insulting to her name if I referred to her as it. But, even though I treat her more kindness by sparing her life, it doesn't mean I automatically will be kind to every other human."_

Ally stood silently for a few moments before she thanked him for answering with a small nod. She ran out of the shed to go after Jordan. Jen was sobs were still as loud and as heavy as ever and her grip did not loosen. Slenderman glanced down at Jen again, and raised his arms and wrapped them in return around Jen, pushing her head gently into his shoulder.

Ally grabbed Jordan by the shoulders, spun him around, and struck him across the face as Ally's tears streamed down her own.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!"

Jordan smiled weakly back at Ally and shrugged his shoulders and continued on his way. Ally was left standing, astounded as he refused to answer her. She dropped to her knees, lacking the energy to move.

_**24 Hours Later – The Following Morning**_

Ally finished packing her suitcase and dragged her feet down the apartment stairs and out onto the street, being watched by a lethargic Jen. Ally noticed she was being watched, and nodded as a thanks, yet having a strong look of disdain radiating from her eyes. This looked pierced Jen as she closed the curtains and went to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. Noticing that the cereal was on the very top shelf, where Jen could not reach, she climbed onto the counters in an attempt to obtain it. Her foot was firmly planted on the counter as she was a hand's length away from the box. Then, she felt her foot slip as it was planted on a tea towel, sending her tumbling, falling towards the kitchen floor. Waiting for the bone-breaking impact, she found herself cradled in an elongated arm, with the other arm reaching towards the box.

"_I really do have to babysit you." _An amused Slenderman chuckled darkly.

"I would say something snarky, but this time, thanks. I could've really injured myself there."

"_Was it this one you wanted?"_

"Yeah, thanks."

Jen took the box of cereal from his bony fingers and went to the cupboard to get a bowl. After pouring the milk and pouring a glass of orange juice, she sat down at the table while Slenderman looked at the nutrition information of the cereal box.

"_How do humans actually eat this?"_

"Eh, if it tastes good, I'll eat it."

"_So by that logic, if dead children tasted good, would you eat them?"_

Jen's eyes widened as she began to choke on her mouthful of cereal, after a painful swallow, she wiped the tears from her eyes and stared with a disgusted expression at him laughing at her suffering. She unlocked her phone and typed in the address to a news website.

"_If the electricity has shut down in this apartment block, how do you restore power to your phone when its depleted?"_

"I have to walk down to the library and sit there for a few hours while my phone charges on a powerpoint there."

Jen flicked past the celebrity gossip and saw an article about a house fire last night.

It was Jordan's house, back in his hometown.

"...you found him."

"_Yes, unfortunately. I would've rather killed the other one."_

"What? Why?"

Slenderman held out Ally's phone to Jen.

"_I'm quite talented at pick pocketing. Listen to her voicemail."_

Jen stared back at Slenderman, hoping to receive an explanation.

"_She did not come here of her own accord. She was ordered to."_

Slenderman watched as Jen pressed the button to begin the saved messages that were stored in Ally's voicemail.

The voice of a middle aged man started to play.

**(I'm so sorry about the late update! I had writer's block really badly! I'm also not sure on how I'm going to end this story, I'm running low on ideas. If you have any ideas that you would like to see, please leave a PM or in the reviews if you want. I'd really appreciate it.)**


	8. Chapter 8: The Plot to Reward

Jen's palms began to sweat as she anxiously pressed the call button on Ally's beat up phone to play the mysterious voice mail. Slenderman hushed the static he was emitting from the speaker gently, like he was hushing a baby to sleep within his arms and gazed with a concentrated aura over to the phone. Jen looked up at the Slenderman with the eyes of a nervous child, and he nodded to allow permission to listen to the recording. Her ears pricked at the sound of a middle aged man's voice, husky and professional.

"I am calling to request an update on your assignment's progress. I understand you have found the target, but since that point in time you have contacted us, we have not received any further information from you. I do hope you have not forgotten the rewards you shall receive if you manage to succeed at this mission. Keep those in mind, remember, I can make your most desired hopes realised. Good evening."

A confused expression started to creep its way over Jen's face as she pondered the meaning of the voice mail after she hung up, the phone started to vibrate as a call was coming through. Both figures stared intently at the screen, hoping to recognise a number or a caller ID.

Private number.

_"Answer it."_ Slenderman advised.

Jen answered the call, switched it to speaker and waited for a voice. She soon recognised that it was the voice of the middle aged man who had called the phone previously. After an irritated 'hello?!' crackled through the speaker, Slenderman whispered to Jen to pass the phone to him.

The voice that came from Slenderman completely took Jen by surprise as she felt a urge to laugh build up inside her.

_"Helloo?"_

Slenderman was speaking in Ally's voice, with such accuracy that even her speech patterns and pauses were evident.

"Ally, I believe I had requested to keep us updated with your progress. Where have you been?"  
_"Sorry, I kinda had my hands full with Jen. She's really hard to keep in one place. Seems like she's on the run from something."_  
"On the run? Has she discovered our intentions?"  
_"I'm not that stupid, old man."_  
"Watch your tongue, young lady. Don't forget what I can give you back. Let this be a lesson to you to keep us informed. Good evening."

The middle aged man hung up abruptly.

"So, now what?" Jen questioned.  
_"From what we have heard,"_ Slenderman answered, returning to his normal voice, _"this company, or so I'm assuming, has a use for you. But we do not know what that use could be yet. I cannot locate the human who had assigned the girl this task, though."_  
"Why not?"  
_"A few reasons. The telephone line these people used is very secure. If I were to try and trace the call to its source, these people will know and they will grow even more suspicious of both you and the other girl. Secondly, although I could locate somebody by the sound of their voice, I have no idea about their physical appearance, and I do not desire to travel around all four corners of the earth. This reason also relates to the fact that this person knows not of my existence. You know what the internet says about me: the more you know, the closer I get to you, so I have no leads. However, I have...appointed someone who could help us figure out this man and what he wants with you. He'll be here quite shortly."_

There was a knock at the door and a sing-song 'Jen!' radiated from outside. She immediately rushed to the door, recognising that tone and flung open the door to see a very tired-looking Jordan. He felt a strong force knock him backwards, realising that Jen's arms were wrapped around him.

"You're not dead?!"  
_"He had a very interesting argument as to why I should spare him, although it was more like he was begging for his life. I only burnt his house down to give the impression that I had eliminated him."_  
"Meh, I moved away from there ages ago and no one's moved in since." Jordan shrugged happily.  
"Ohh, you used the house I would recognise from when we were kids! So, what's this 'very interesting arguement'?"  
"I accidentally spilled that Ally had been getting really weird calls from some private number. Then I was asked what I knew about them. He must've looked through Ally's phone at one point. I said that I could help, I'm good at problem solving. He remembered all of my 'super-sleuth' work that I had done around here about him, so he offered to spare my life if I could help him find out what these guys have made Ally do, what they're making her do it for and why these guys want Jen."

Jordan had decided to stay the night at Jen's apartment, with Slenderman's very strict warning about how if he was harming Jen in any way, the decision not to spare his life left him slightly paranoid. After Jordan had offered to make coffee for the both of them early the next morning, with Slenderman refusing and complaining about the aftertaste after trying Jen's cup, the three sat in thought, in silence. Jordan stayed stoic in the kitchen, watching the sunrise gleam in through the tiny kitchen window, still lost in thought, his eyes fixed on a dying Chinese Elm tree planted in a neighbour's garden. Slenderman stood up suddenly.

_"They're coming!"_

Without any time allowed for Jordan to process what Slenderman had said, he was dragged into a closet to hide by a tendril with the door shut behind him. Jordan's mouth was covered by a very pale and bony hand as his muffled screams tried to escape him as a swarm of armed officers burst through the door charging straight for Jen. Slenderman and Jordan watched helplessly as the officers dragged Jen away, kicking and screaming. Only after she was bludgeoned to the head with a bat did her screams fall silent and her legs lay still.  
She woke up tied up in a cell with her arms and legs bound together. Having no clue where she was, she was then hauled up by a bulky security guard who handcuffed her after she was released from her bondage. Dragging her throbbing feet across the cold tiled floor, she realised that she was not in a jail, but rather a business office's basement. She tripped numerous times up the stairs as she was tugged along like a disobedient dog towards a set of large wooden doors with the word CEO engraved on a plate of gold. The doors creaked open slowly and indimitatingly, and Jen's eyes fell on two figures sitting in large, cushion chairs.

One of these figures was an average height, fifty year old man with wrinkles defined under his eyes, showing age and experience, his gaze was cold, piercing Jen with his lifeless grey eyes.

The other figure was Ally.


	9. Chapter 9: Infiltration

The bubbly, pink-haired girl Jen once knew had faded away in a sea of vengeance and desperation as they stared at each other, each hoping that one would break the deafening silence that engulfed them both. The middle aged man menacingly invited Jen to sit beside her former friend, waiting for her to get comfortable before he began to speak. Dressed in a well groomed grey suit, with a black shirt that had been ironed to perfection and a white tie hung tightly around the collar of the shirt, reflecting the dim skylights that gave the image of scattered dust particles around the office. His bulky, sausage-fingered hand gestured towards another cushion chair with a small grin forming with his thin, cracked lips, trying to imitate the actions of hospitality. Ally looked at Jen coldly, although Jen could've sworn that she saw a glimpse of relief.

"Sit. Your feet must be..tired." he invited.

Jen looked down at her grazed feet from being dragged up concrete stairs. Some of the grazes drew blood, which gave Jen an idea.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Walter. My surname is not important. I am aware that you used to be aquaintances with my daughter."

"…I don't know who your daughter is…sir." Jen added, feeling that the formality was needed.

"Oh, I'm afraid that you do. You were with her during her last moments. You might recall the name, Marie, do you not?"

Jen's heart sank to the very pit of her stomach as she recalled the image of that choppy haired girl she met during her time at high school. The look of fear and guilt shone through her greasy face triggered a worrying expression of discovery from the man's menacingly ambitious face.

"Men, we've found her."

Rough arms chafed Jen's fragile ones as guards took hold of her and dragged her away underground again, into the cold, concrete lined walls waiting for her return. Jen put her idea into action, as she scraped her foot onto the stone cold floor, leaving smears of her blood to dry in her wake. She did not return to her old cell, but rather to a room which smelled of the coppery scent of blood. This scent was familiar to Jen, but this time, it did not bring the comfort of knowing that the Slenderman was around to save her, rather, it brought the feeling of impending doom. She was strapped with her hands above her head to the wall and her feet to chains on the floor.

"Now then, shall we begin?" a man wearing a white lab coat sneered.

"Begin?"

"The interrogation. Let me tell you a little story, sweetheart. If an innocent man was locked up in jail and was told that he killed someone again and again, over time he's going to believe that he killed the sucker. Get the drift, toots? First tell me before we start, what did Marie do to you for you to get all those nasty scars and scabs?"

Jen shyly looked down to the remainders of her cuts and stab wounds.

"She pinned me up against a tree and started slashing at me."

"Ah I see...let's begin. Did you kill Marie?"

"No."

"Let's try that again. Did you kill Marie?"

"No!"

"You're a tough nut to crack. Did you kill Marie?"

"NO I DIDN'T KILL HER. I DID NOT KILL HER!"

"...that's all I needed, sugar."

"What?"

With a cunning grin, terrifyingly revealing yellowed teeth, spreading over the man's face, he pulled out a phone from his unusually large breast pocket.

"Through the power of editing, this will be my ticket to a promotion!" the man cackled, his words bouncing off the walls and beelined into Jen's ears, eating away at whatever hope she had left like acid. After shouting at one of his subordinates to give him a knife that was sitting on a table, he turned back to the trembling girl as he then gazed up to a glass box on the far side of the room.

"Bring her in, boss!"

Ally leapt out of her seat and marched up excitedly towards Walter, like an obedient child eagerly awaiting presents on Christmas morning.

"I brought Jen just like you asked me to! When will you start to fix everything?"

"I have to interrogate Jen first to see if she is the right…candidate. But I have to wonder, why were you gone for so long?"

"I had to take care of some business, Jen's friend is very good at playing hide and seek, especially the seek part."

"Is that why you were very meticulous about not leaving a trail behind?"

"Yep."

"Who is this friend?"

Ally froze.

"Just some guy Jen found on the internet."

An announcent rang the words 'bring her in, boss!' around the office. Walter started to smile.

"Ally, my dear, come with me."

Jordan and the Slenderman tumbled out of the closet, with Jordan gasping for breath after being trapped in there for an hour to ensure that the forces that broke into the apartment were gone. As Slenderman dusted his suit off, Jordan was checking that no marks were left by him during their time in the closet.

_"Calm yourself, the only appendage of mine that made contact with you was my hand over your mouth."_ he assured.

"It better have fuckin' been." Jordan muttered under his breath.

The pair stood awkwardly in slience, the only sound breaking it being the shuffling of feet nervously on the faded floorboards.

"So, how are we gonna find the bastards?" Jordan asked.

"_Fear not. You underestimate me."_ Slenderman commented.

"You didn't answer my question. So you just look at them and go 'bingo!', do you?"

"_I'm fully aware of which one I am interested in. And I managed to get quite a good look of one of the men's faces."_

"…I am both pleased and terrified of the look on your face."

"_My face?"_ Slenderman chuckled as he started to laugh subtly, folding his arms in disbelief.

"You laughed?!"

"_You amuse me, boy."_

"If we're gonna be buddies for the time being, just call me Jordan, dude."

"_I concur. However, never refer to me as 'dude', ever again."_

"Then what goes for you? Slenderman? Der Ritter?"

"_Whatever you find the most suitable. Are you familiar with what you humans call, 'slender-walking'?"_

"That's when you randomly teleport everywhere, yes?"  
_"Correct. Would you like to try it out? Would you rather hold my hand or climb onto my back?" _Slenderman teased.

"...neither. Will holding your blazer do?"

"_You're no fun. Hold on then,"_

In a blink of an eye, they found themselves in a cramped little office, reeking of coffee and cigarettes, and crammed with now unarmed officers.

"_Stand back, Jordan. This will get rather messy."_

After Jordan's eyes and ears had been uncovered, he felt a sickening turn in his stomach, and threw up in the corner of the room at the sight of the bodies.

"Wait," Jordan spluttered between coughs, "Why did you leave that guy alive?"

"_He was the face I saw and the one I followed. Now you,"_ he turned to the whimpering officer, _"are going to tell me where you took the young girl you abducted this morning."_

With a violently shaking finger, he pointed out the door, and gestured to turn right.

"_Thank you."_ Slenderman lazily muttered as he snapped the soldier's neck with a deafening _crack_.

The pair walked out casually leaving behind a bloody mess of an office. After they had walked according to the officer's vague instructions, they saw a very faint trail of blood.

"_It's Jen's blood. I see what she's done. This should lead us straight to her."_

The sound of guns being loaded drew the Slenderman's attention.

"_But these guards should be no problem."_ He sneered with a murderous tinge to his smooth and inviting voice.


	10. Chapter 10: Ally's Lament

Slenderman tilted his head back, relaxing as the endless tendrils slithered their way through the guards' eye sockets, watching them collapse to the ground with a sickening _thump._ Jordan went back into the office to throw up again while Slenderman waited impatiently outside. His foot was tapping repeatedly while Jordan stumbled out of the office coughing. He gave Slenderman a 'sorry about that' gaze while he brushed it off with a lazy gesture. The pair crept down the corridor, following the faded trail of smeared blood left behind by Jen.

A voice from the intercom rang eerily throught the hallway, sourced from a room down the very end.

"Three, two..."

"_We," _Slenderman started, _"Are getting there before-"_

He violently grabbed Jordan by a loose tendril and slender-walked towards the scene of the potential crime. A terrified scientist stood shaking with a pizza cutter in his hand, hovering above Jen's stomach. Before he had time to scream, a tendril went through between his eyes, along with all the staff in the room who suffered the same fate.

"_One."_

Slenderman's gaze drifted slowly up to a horrified Walter. With Ally cowering behind him.

"What the..."

"How the hell did he..."

"_Find you? Quite simple actually." _Slenderman replied with a tinge of sass.

His attention was diverted to the sound of Jen spluttering and wheezing, her skin chafed against ropes. He speedily power walked over to her and cut her free, she she collapsed into his outstretched arms. She pulled her face out of his blazer and looked up at the blank face which greeted her.

"_Are you alright?" _Slenderman started with a compassionate tone to his voice, _"So how many have I had to come and save you? What happened to keeping yourself alive?" _he then started to joke.

Walter had had enough.

"What the fuck are you and why are you in my office?!" he exclaimed, his voice breaking with fear.

"_Excuse me, that language is quite inappropriate for the situation."_

The room was spinning before Walter as he turned to look at his guards, who were now rancid corpses lying on the floor.

"_Behind you."_

He spun around to face the abdominal of the Slenderman as he was lifted up by his collar with Slenderman's bony fingers wrapped right around it.

"_Walter. CEO of a million dollar corporation, with a wife, and a daughter who has previously deceased...at my hands."_

The man wriggled about groaning in misery over the loss of his daughter as the news sank in that he was in the hands of her killer.

"_Explain this to me. Why are you hunting someone who did not harm her? Shouldn't you be hunting me?"_

"T-t-the school...I got in contact with...the principal...he said two students...disappeared from...there at the...same time...Jen and...Marieee...' Walter choked and bawled.

Slenderman threw Walter to the floor.

"_Disgusting. I will deal with you later. Stop your wailing, you're a grown man...on the exterior anyway."_

"WHY?!" shouted a distressed voice from a viewing box up in the corner of the room.

Everyone froze.

"Why what?"

Ally's eye liner was soon streaming down her face in tiny rivers of black as she took a breath in.

"Remember _Jen, _how my parents got divorced all those years ago over my dad's affairs with the bartender down the road? I put on a happy face. I tried to keep my chin up through all this. But...I just...you have no idea what its like to have your life split in half! There were fights about who would take care of me, the house was full of yelling. I was desperate. I would've done anything to have my life back to normal again. It KILLS me to see my mother drunk on the lounge all the time! IT HURTS. I WOULD'VE DONE ANYTHING TO HAVE MY OLD LIFE BACK! That's why I took the offer from Walter. He promised my life back. He was so sincere...how could I refuse?! I was promised so much in return for your stupid ass to be brought back here. Not like you'd know what it's like to have everything taken away from you."

Jen cringed at Ally's last sentence.

"Yes, I do, Ally."

Slenderman rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"HAHA, YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVED THAT, YOU STUPID BITCH?!" cackled Walter from his position in the corner. "I HAD YOUR FUCKIN' ASS HAULED HERE TO GET REVENGE ON MY DARLING DAUGHTER'S DEATH! YOU THOUGHT THAT I COULD FIX YOUR DUMBASS PARENTS' LIVES? YOU'RE A FUCKIN' SHIT BRAINED IDIOT!"

"_I now fully understand where his daughter got her language from."_

"YOU!" he turned towards the towering entity, "YOU WERE THE ONE WHO MURDERED MY DAUGHTER! YET YOU KEEP THIS FUGLY LITTLE SHIT YOU CALL 'JEN', ALIVE? WHY THE FUCK IS THAT? HOW DARE YOU KILL MY DARLING MARIE! I'LL KILL YOU! I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN!"

"_Well come on then!,"_ Slenderman laughed, _"Let's see you try!"_

A once wealthy man who had it all suddenly threw away all his dignity and pride as he charged bare handed into Slenderman's eagerly awaiting tendrils. He then turned to Ally after throwing the lifeless businessman away.

"_And now for you, Ally."_


	11. Chapter 11: Missing

Slenderman looked down scornfully onto Ally as she minutely backed away, preparing for a mad sprint for survival. She tried to mask her fear with a brave face as she began to laugh in the face of danger. Slenderman picked up on her futile chances of escaping and began to calmly, yet intimidatingly stroll towards her, gradually backing her into a corner.

"Haha...you come for me next, you son of a bitch?" she sneered, her voice quivering.

"_Well, considering you tried to have my companion brutally murdered even though she was a close friend of yours, then yes."_

"No...no you don't understand!"

_"I understand perfectly. You sold out your best friend in a vain and desolate attempt to resurrect a life you know would never return." _he leaned down to Ally's eye level, having her completely helpless in a corner,_ "Now, you feel that your last, pitiful hope has been utterly destroyed, and with that feeling festering in your heart...you will make your descent into hell."_

"WAIT!" echoed a cry from the hall outside.

Jordan came stumbling in after throwing up a third time in the hallway.

"_You really need to take control of your bodily functions. Or I will do it for you."  
_"Well gee, mister. I sure don't get to see people get horribly mutilated everyday unlike _someone_ I know."

Ally was thunderstruck.

"J-J-Jordan?!"

The traumatised, pink-haired girl tried to push through the walls of tendrils trapping her in a claustrophobic prison cell. She screamed for his help in breaking through her confinement, but Jordan was gently picked up by a stray tendril and placed next to Jen while violently shoving Ally back into her foetal position of misery.

"PLEASE! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVING SOMETHING TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU, DON'T YOU?!"

"_Yes I do, child. My proof is standing next to Jordan. She was taken away from me earlier than I expected."_

"BUT YOU GOT HER BACK! HOW DID IT FEEL GETTING YOUR FRIEND BACK?! PRETTY DAMN GOOD I BET. Can't you see? I want to be able...to feel..." Ally collapsed into tears.

Slenderman leaned in to less than an inch away from Ally.

"_You want to feel like your heart is whole again. Your family and your friends all there by your side to support you. When your shell of a world shattered around you, you couldn't cope. You were too comfortable in that closed off paradise you called your life. You went to desperate lengths to feel like you belong, to reconstruct what you lost to find some form of peace in your mind."_

"H-how did you..."

The being seemed to smile.

"_Because I specialise in making lives like yours a a downward spiral of despair."_

He could feel fragile hands pulling at his waist. He turned around to see Jen trying to tug him away.

"_Why do you save the one who tried to have you killed?"_ he enquired.

"I know how she feels. What she did was outrageous, I know. But please. Try to reason." Jen begged.

"A_nswer me this, girl. Why did you really come here? Not just for the calls, you had anouther reason."_

"I wanted to see...if Jen was okay." Ally mumbled with shame in her voice, "Never did I think, it would lead to this."

The sound of sirens outside the building put everyone on high alert as they quickly planned their escape route.

**One Week Later**

Any bystander in the local grocery store would have seen a chestnut brown haired girl accompanied by an unusually tall man with jet black hair, defined features and a matching suit with a double breasted blazer, gleaming with gold buttons. The girl would have looked up nervously to the man while whispering various things to him, with him giving a confused response.

"You're really starting to freak me out here." Jen whispered up to him while in the organic aisle.

"_I can manipulate how people see me. I just left you unaffected."_

"Well, can you 'affect' me? Just for the laughs."

What Jen saw was an extremely attractive, well dressed man.

"Damn! You sure know what humans like to see."

"_Of course I do, I've been hunting them for an immeasurable amount of time."_

"I need some milk. Come."

"_How do you keep your milk cold if you have no electricity?"_

"I don't. I have to drink it room temperature."

"_Even I feel a little disgusted at that."_

"It's not so bad, you just have to finish it faster."

Jen's eyes widened as she picked up a carton. A picture of a pink-haired girl with thick glasses was plastered on the side.

"...what did you do?"

_[Thanks for reading :) I had to make a small change to this chapter, since I thought my original idea (which was having Ally's eye being ripped out) was going a little too far over the line. I apologise to those who were put off their food while reading it, I'll be more careful and I won't rush my chapters anymore. Lesson learned :D]_


	12. Chapter 12: Case File

Slenderman raised an eyebrow.

"_What? Why do you automatically blame me?"_

"Are you kidding me right now? When someone goes missing and I happen to know them, you're usually involved."

The pair steadily power walked towards the checkout, where a young girl with bleach blonde hair and freckles dotted on her nose and cheeks was waiting happily. Jen started to unload her trolley onto the conveyor belt, slowly carting the goods towards the girl's awaiting fingers. She smiled brightly at Jen, then dragged her eyes up to the towering man staring down at her. Her pupils grew large with fascination, then snapped out of her fantasies to scan the groceries piling up. Jen picked up a bottle of orange juice out of the trolley and held it out to her.

"Can I pay for this upfront and open it now?"

"Of course!"

The checkout girl gladly accepted Jen's cash and gave her the change. Jen opened the bottle and took a large swallow, feeling the pulp travel down her throat.

"Damn, girl! You got yourself a fine guy here!" she giggled, "Is he your boyfriend~?"

Jen was taken aback, what she was about to swallow was now threatening to spray out of her tightly sealed lips, crouched over. She gazed weakly at Slenderman, who was sporting a fine shade of red around his cheekbones.

"_Wh-what? Boyfriend?!"_ he managed to stammer.

"Haha, just kidding! Here's your groceries sir!" the checkout girl beamed, completely ignoring Jen's outstretched hand.

The two made their long walk back to the lonely apartment, where they walked in silence. They climbed the seemingly endless stairs up to the splintering door of Lily's decaying apartment. Jen turned around to see that the once handsome, defined man had transformed back into the faceless entity of nightmares. She soon spun around completely and yanked his tie down to her eye level, startling him as he was dragged down from his frightening height.

"What...did you do?"

Slenderman seemed to have narrowed what would've been his eyes as he picked up Jen by a tendril to meet his own level. He straightened himself up as Jen's gaze never left him.

"_I can promise you, Jen, I did not do any harm to Ally. I never lie. I may torture, kill and make humans a shrivelling shell of despair, but I do not lie."_

He lifted up his hand and stroked Jen's hair, calming her down.

"_Relax, child."_

A knock at the door draw everyone's unwavering attention. Jordan came stumbling in with an empty carton of milk in his hand, wearing a fine milk moustache, contrasting his sabre black hair. He shoved the carton into Slenderman's face with a concerned look in his eyes.

"What did-"  
_"I said this once to Jen and I will say it again. I did nothing to harm her. You have milk lining your mouth."_

Jen nodded in agreement. Jordan hastily wiped the moustache away, much to Jen's disappointment.

"Fine fine, but why are you holding Jen up like that?"

The two looked at each other awkwardly before Slenderman set Jen down gently.

"Man! Why did you tell him?" she complained.

"_Tell him what?"_

"About his milk moustache! I wanted to see how long it would take for him to notice, it would've been hilarious!"

"_I don't quite see what is so humorous about leaving linings of cow secretion on his lips."_

"You must be fun at parties." Jen flatly commented.

"Okay okay, get a room you two." Jordan interrupted. "Ally has gone missing. If Der Ritter here didn't do it, Walter's dead and gone, who would know she was missing apart from us three?"

Jordan's face dropped.

"Oh God. We need to check the forest! She could have _hung _herself!. _Der Großmann, chop chop! Work your magic!"_

Slenderman sighed and disappeared.

* * *

"Madam, we're going to need you to speak clearer for us." a police commissioner asked a distraught woman sitting across the table from him.

"My daughter...she said she was going for a trip with...a school friend of hers."

"Who was this school friend, madam? Can you describe him for us?"

"He has...long black hair," she hiccuped, "brown eyes...5.9 feet tall. His name is Jordan."

"Has your daughter had any intimate relations with him?"

"No...she hasn't, not in that way. They've been friends since they were in kindergarten. But she had another friend who moved away. But she hasn't been heard from in three months. She might have gone to find her."

"Where did she move to?"

"Uhh, I can't remember the name of it, it's south from here, about an hour drive."

The commissioner rushed to a cabinet full of files and pulled out a particularly large folder.

"Oh no...she moved here?" he asked as he pointed out a certain section on a map which was riddled with dots.

"Yes."

The woman continued to weep.

"I just want my daughter back, she's all I have left. I managed to get myself clean but when I remembered that she went on a trip...that was three weeks ago. My baby was gone and I have no idea where she went. I panicked and called you as soon as I could find my phone."

The commissioner dismissed the fretting woman sitting across him and brought his beefy hand up to his chin. He stroked his stubble before leaving the office, deep in thought, before taking his hat and keys with him.

"We need to go back to that hellhole, boys. Pack your bags. Make this our final investigation."


	13. Chapter 13: Chance Meeting

The woman shakily sat in the passenger's seat of a bulky police car, while the commissioner took her hand and helped her in like a gentleman. His exhausted, brown eyes, glimmering with experience wearily cast their gaze over to the distressed woman who was wringing her hands. A tiny drop of sweat trickled down her aging face, her life draining with worry. The ignition of the car startled her slightly as the rumble shook the windowpanes of the car, distorting her reflection like static on a screen. The police radio buzzed loudly, reporting cases of robberies, missing persons cases and heists. The jargon blaring through the radio was indistinguishable while the commissioner fiddled with it, trying to pick up a clearer sound, but to no avail. Annoyed, he gave the radio a _whack_ to the tuning dial and shut it off abruptly. The commissioner looked at the faded sign of the town, its population constantly declining, a feeling of prickling fear crawled down his spine as he pulled up to about five other cars, sirens flashing, awaiting his arrival.

"Good to see ya, sir." A brawny policeman stated, holding out his masculine hand to the frail woman standing beside his boss. She took it cautiously.

"We haven't had the time to find you some accommodation just yet, but we do believe an old apartment block down the road should suffice. It's a little run down, our apologies." the commissioner explained.

"Oh..it's alright. I don't mind." the woman mumbled, barely audible, then soon faded away when an object on the ground caught her eye. Glistening in the sunset, the glass reflected the late afternoon sun while the thick black frames seemed to absorb all possible light.

Ally's glasses.

"What's wrong, madam?" a policewoman asked her kindly, before seeing what she was staring at, wide eyed. "Sir! We found something!"

"Are these your daughter's?" the policewoman enquired.

The woman nodded.

"What's your name?"

"L-Lauren."

"Okay, Lauren. We'll have to ask you to stay here while we conduct our investigations. We shouldn't be too long.

The police dispersed into various parts of the forest, under the watchful gaze of Slenderman. In an instant, he was gone.

"Well? Did you find her?" Jordan and Jen asked in unison.

"_I have some suspicious activity taking place in the forest. Police vehicles are everywhere. It was awfully distracting. Excuse me. Do NOT follow me. I will know."_

He vanished.

Slenderman reappeared in a high branch of a tree, watching like a hawk over the stumbling police squad, invading his forest. He panned his gaze over to the woman sitting on a lonely tree stump, clutching Ally's glasses in her hands. Recognising the eyewear, he devised a plan to try and interrogate her, while giving her a good scare in the process. He'd been out of the game for too long, juggling humans instead. But first, he would have to lure her away from the interference of the police.

Lauren's glassy eyes never left her daughter's glasses, not even for a second, until she heard twigs snapping not too far in the distance. She looked up hopefully and her hopes were realised; she saw a glimpse of pink hair flickering away behind a tree and into the thicker parts of the foliage. Completely disregarding everything the police had told her to do, she relentlessly followed, her heart leading the way, filled with the wondrous hopes of seeing her daughter again. The sky grew darker and the shadow-fingers of branches grew longer, reaching out to her more and more. Her breath quickened and her pulse accelerated as she gravely realised that she was completely lost, following an illusion.

The twigs _snapped_ again.

Louder.

_Louder._

Static rang in Lauren's ears, covering them hunched over while yelping in pain from sudden sharp jolts of a migraine. Her vision grew distorted, eyesight blurring in and out while her head grew dizzy. A tall figure emerged out of the fog which suddenly was circulating the area, creating an illusion of displacement, not knowing which direction from which she came. The figure walked ever so closer, slowly, menacingly, yet calmly. Lauren was entranced, the tendrils which emerged from the being's back swayed, drawing her into this calming figure. She snapped out of this enticing trance, shook her head and starting making a mad dash in the other direction, bumping into somebody, she began to apologise for her rudeness, she looked up, her neck almost too stiff from fear to move it. He was too tall and too slender to be human. His face seemed to be a whited out blur, but she came to the horrifying realisation that she was not hallucinating.

He had no face.

Lauren was truly frozen in place, her eyes not breaking contact with this unholy being towering over her. She gained some movement back in her legs as she tried to slowly back away, but she was frozen back in place when Slenderman leaned down to her level, face to _face_. A tendril pressed softly against her back, securing her position while a wave of fear and nausea shivered through her body from head to toe. Slenderman was having the time of his life, torturing Lauren, picking away at her confidence and instilling mental trauma. He gazed down at the glasses Lauren clutched onto so tightly, hovered his bony, pale hands over to hers and started to peel one finger at a time away from the glasses. His elongated, thin fingers gently grasped onto Lauren's ones as he treated her fingers delicately, successfully obtaining the glasses, lifting them out of her possession with two fingers before pocketing them inside his blazer.

Something occurred to Slenderman. _He was the Slenderman. _He could track down a single human within a heartbeat. Why was he doing all this unnecessary detective work?

"_I'll be back for you, Lauren." _he threatened before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

She collapsed to the ground, in tears, before the police sniffer dogs found her lying on the forest floor, unconscious.


	14. Chapter 14: Instincts

After reappearing on a foreign side of the forest, Slenderman, held the fragile glasses in his long, bony fingers. Recalling the events which happened moments ago, a feeling of an adrenaline rush washed over him, his metaphorical eyes reopened to the former life he once lead of stalking and mentally torturing the insects he now has in his care. He felt disgusted with himself as he looked down on his hands, an epiphany flooding through his mind as everything he knew had been revived in that one experience. Lauren's crumpled body, the petrified look in her eyes, her quickened breathing and heartbeat excited the inner killer in which Slenderman housed. How he pierced her very soul with his lifeless gaze, his tendrils locking her in place and almost dragging her closer made his skin itch with excitement. He stared at the glasses again, then pocketed them and denied their existence as he took a stroll through the forest over which he ruled.

The sounds of crickets quickly faded away as Slenderman's shoes crunched on the dried up leaves littering the forest path. He gazed lazily up at the path ahead, only turning back to stare at the flashing police lights before continuing on his journey. He calmly strayed away from the path, where the further he went, the stronger the scent of blood and the more frequent the little dots of red on the leaves became. He came to a small circle of trees and bushes, growing so closely together that the inside of this circle almost functioned as a cave, for which inside was a gruesome collection of mutilated bodies. The coppery scent of blood reeked through the branches and was welcomed by the malicious owner of this museum of torture, while he patrolled the outside of it to check if anyone had discovered it.

"_I've missed the smell of a human's blood in the late hours of the night. It's been...awfully long, hasn't it?" _he mumbled to himself.

Where did he stray from his cemented path? He sat down in front of his collection, cross legged, hands on his knees in deep thought. Recounting the events with Jen, Ally and Jordan, he traced the timeline back down to the root, in the nook of the tree covered by a shrub. He once again went through this tale, slowly growing more furious at the treatment of him, and the sheer lack of respect from this spoiled human brats. How dare the boy address him that way? How _dare_ Jen talk back to him this way? Realising his fullest potential to cause grief once more, his innermost emotions were finally let out of their constricting cage, now able to roam free. His senses were amplified, transforming him into the former stalker and hunter he once was, all of the wonderfully evil thoughts flooding his head, piloting his brain and his actions. _I will be a caretaker no more_, he decided as he slender-walked back to the pathetic excuse of an apartment, where his _masters_ were waiting for his return.

Slenderman reappeared in the doorway of the room in which Jordan and Jen had awaited eagerly. He glared at the two _insects_ which scrambled before him, anxious to find out about Ally's whereabouts. He tried his best to keep his composure, yet to no avail. He strode angrily across the room to a coffee table gathering dust and slammed the pair of glasses down onto its surface, risking the lens to be cracked. The two humans stood silently, secretly fearful of what was to come next. He had had enough.

"_You see this?"_ he snapped, pointing furiously at the glasses.

Jordan and Jen nodded immediately, frozen into place.

"_I am no detective, nor am I a slave to the likes of you. I am not your caretaker!" _he paced away from the two,_ "When did I lose track of the one thing I live for?"_

He threateningly turned around to face Jen, still in a rage, his heightened senses pulsing through his body at full force.

"_It was you."_

"Me..?" Jen fearfully questioned.

"_It was your sorry bag of meat and bones which drove me away from my purpose! My reason for living!"_

"Excuse me?!" Jen retaliated, "You _chose _to spare me in that god damn forest!"

"_Only God knows why I spared you. Look at what you have belittled me to! A human babysitter, playing detective because one of your _precious _friends went missing! You can't handle a little pain, now can't you?!"_

"A little _pain_?!" Jen started to scream, "I have lost my parents, my brothers almost to _your _hand! You murdered my aunt Lily, the ONLY family I HAD LEFT! You DARE SAY I CAN'T HANDLE ANY PAIN?!"

"The fuck is your problem?!" Jordan butted in, shielding Jen from the approaching monster.

"_Stay out of this, you vermin!"_ Slenderman shot back as a swift tendril sent Jordan flying across the room, crashing into a wall and knocked out of breath, hunched over on the floor.

"_...you both DARE speak to me this way? I could end both of your pitiful lives within a few seconds, or I could give you the most torturous death I could possibly concoct. Yet you assume I am your butler, your servant who will carry out all your orders and you, ESPECIALLY you Jen, you expect me to save your pathetic slab of meat every time you happen to make eye contact with somebody on the streets! Well I have had enough! You worthless, pieces of lowly human germs!"_ Slenderman raged on, all self control thrown to the wind.

"ENOUGH." Jen ordered. "Get...the _fuck_...out of here." she continued, trying not to let her voice quiver.

Slenderman came to a halt. Realising his behaviour, he took a deep breath in and exhaled, attempting to calm himself. With an unfamiliar, stabbing feeling in his chest rising within him, he took a few steps towards the door before disappearing, while Jen rushed over to Jordan, picked him up and they ran for the door in a fit of pure anger, as they ran down the street together on a rush of fury, they soon felt powerless and vulnerable. They looked at each other shaking like leaves, before they collapsed onto the pavement, completely and utterly unconscious.

* * *

"Madam, you're going to have to help us out a little bit more." The commissioner kindly asked Lauren in an office in the local police station of the town, "What did you see in there?"

"I...I saw..." she stuttered, "A tall figure."

"Tall figure? How tall, approximately?"

"Ohh...umm, ten, eleven feet?" she tried to envision the being in her head, only to have her shake her head violently, holding back tears.

"Eleven...feet?" the commissioner questioned, "Madam, that's not physically possible."

"I saw it with my own eyes!" Lauren cried, "It was tall, slender, and...I think..."

"You think what?"

"I think, it had no face."

The commissioner leaned back in his chair, pretending to think about the possibilities. What had been haunting him this whole time, was that many other accounts which he had heard from in this hellhole of a town, were exactly the same as Lauren's account. He rubbed his face with the rough palms of his hands and prepared himself for at least another half an hour of questioning about this being once more.

* * *

Jen woke up without Jordan next to her, but what confused her more was that she was in a bed with a glass of water next to her, shimmering in the morning sun. A volunteer noticed her awake and greeted her brightly.

"And I was here thinking you'd never wake up!" he said cheerfully.

"Where am I?" Jen drowsily asked.

"You're in the St Joesph's Shelter For The Homeless. A passerby found you and another person lying on the pavement knocked out, so we took you here and your friend to the hospital, he looked like he'd been in a fight. Do you remember how you got on the pavement like that?"

"I was in a fight? I don't remember." Jen strained to remember what had happened.

The volunteer ushered her back down into her bed when she attempted to get up, before getting her another glass of water.

"In fact, I don't remember a lot of the past few months."

* * *

_[Hello! I'm so **so **sorry for the extremely late update! I had a massive writers' block, and also I've had exams and assignments which have come to no end! Due to this year being my last year of high school, this fanfic and my Transformers one will be put on an indefinite hiatus. I'll update when I can, but I could not be updating for longer periods of time than this time around. I'm really sorry to all of my readers, I will be back :D]_


	15. Chapter 15: Fragmented

The volunteer looked at Jen with pure surprise. Her body was throbbing with the pain from something which couldn't recall. Being restrained to the bed frustrated her, as any attempts for her to escape her prison of sheets and blankets were crushed by the enthusiastic volunteer. Her bloodshot eyes tried to stare straight into the volunteer's soul, but his over-the-top charm blocked the stare like a force field. His face dropped into a vacant expression of pure surprise when Jen told him just how long she had seemed to have forgotten.

"A few months?! Honey, are you sure it was a few months and not a few days?" the volunteer exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's all so hazy. When I think about it...I don't know. It's just 'not there', I guess." Jen replied, dazed.

"If you want, I _could _take you to the hospital your friend's in if you'd like. That might jog your memory." he offered politely. "I'll have to call up a few places though..."

After half an hour of waiting in the dreary lobby of the homeless shelter, Jen was finally picked up by a taxi which reeked of cigarette smoke. The shaken adolescent clambered into the stained and worn down seats of the taxi, when a man sporting a five o'clock shadow turned around and grinned, revealing unbrushed teeth.

"Where to, miss?" he asked suspiciously friendly.

"Didn't the volunteer tell you where to go?"

Blushing a little, the man nodded sharply to shake off the embarrassment and slammed the accelerator to speed the car away in the afternoon sun.

The taxi rattled, creaked and came to a stop outside the hospital Jordan was being taken captive in. Jen immediately rushed inside and blurted out Jordan's name and details to the stunned receptionist innocently perched behind the desk. After replying with his location in a nasally, drone-like voice, Jen power walked after being told off by a security guard not to run, towards the ward Jordan was in. Much to her relief, he seemed to be in a stable condition when she burst through the door.

* * *

The worn out thumb of Ally was sticking out towards the road as she lethargically shuffled alongside the deserted highway. Her backpack slumped down on her shoulders, dragging its weight down on them while she panted and gasped for breath. She felt headlights shining on her back as she excitedly turned around and started waving her thumb. A blurry, black sedan accelerated past her, coating her in a fine layer of dust while she flipped him off out of anger.

Out of the corner of her short sighted eye, she saw a flurry of shadows skim past the bushes which she trudged beside. She stopped, her heart racing and her palms sweating while she waited for her follower to emerge.

"_I assume you're not surprised to see me here."_

"Haven't you tortured me enough?!" Ally retaliated.

"_Haha, clearly you don't know enough about me then."_

Ally turned her back on the Slenderman, yet frightful of what he could be capable of, she spun herself around again to face him.

"What do you want, then?"

"_I have no intention to harm you, this once. I am here to offer you a deal." _

"No." she flatly responded, "I've had enough of deals and scams. Get lost."

"_Your mother has come to look for you back in the town. If you help me, because you are the only one who can assist me, I will return you to her."_

Ally was awestruck.

"She has?! Bullshit! But I can find her myself, thank you very much."

"_Not if I can help it. I will hinder every path to her until you succeed in what I ask you to do."_

She sighed and continued on.

"What do you want me to do?"

"_I had a very heated...argument with Jen, and Jordan was somewhat involved. In a state even I didn't know I was in, I partially erased Jordan's memories, not fully concentrating my efforts on him, yet I fully erased my existence from Jen's mind. I regret my actions bitterly, yet I cannot undo what I have bestowed unto them."_

"What? You can't restore their memories even though you were the one to wipe them? What kinda crap is that?" Ally taunted.

"_I'll wipe your physical existence from this earth if you continue to keep up this sass. And what, you think I'm an all powerful, god-like being? Even I have my weaknesses, just none that you humans would know about, or would be able to utilise."_

"Anyway, why can't you restore Jen and Jordan's memories?"

"_I cannot personally restore memories. The way I slowly bring the victim back to their previous state of mind is to leave small triggers in their everyday lives, slowly coming to realise what has happened, therefore being more vulnerable to rash decisions and actions based on impulse. It's more effective when driving somebody mad. I theorised that if I leave triggers for Jen about her previous experience in my company, she will come back and remember me again. Your job is to inform me of the types of triggers she will respond to." _

"...you mean what she likes?"

"_In layman's terms, I guess so."_

Ally smirked and started to giggle.

"Oooh, isn't that cute! The almighty powerful serial killer has a soft spot for a little girl!"

Slenderman shuffled uncomfortably.

"Okay, I'll tell you..."

* * *

"Jordan!" Jen cried beside his hospital bed.

"Jen, something's wrong." Jordan stated worriedly, "I have patches of my memory which I can't remember. I'm sure it's just amnesia though."

"...I can't remember _any _of the last few months."

"Daaamn! How hard did you hit your head?"

"Jordan, I'm scared. My head doesn't hurt, My body is alright after the rest in the homeless shelter, yes, a homeless shelter, and in the taxi. I'm perfectly okay. It's just that...my memory is like, blank."

Jordan hummed to himself while putting his fragmented memory together.

"I remember you having a fight last night, Ally went missing when we came here to look for you, you were missing too."

Jen's blood ran cold.

"I was _missing_? What the hell is going on here?! Well..here's what I remember. My parents went missing and were never found, my brothers were killed, and so was my aunt Lily. I don't know by who, but I do know that it was an accident. It was somebody close who did it too."

"I remember a tall guy wearing a suit-"

Before Jordan could finish his sentence, a stocky nurse with a sour expression on his face ushered Jen out of the ward. Fighting her bulging arms off Jen's twigs for arms, she shuffled towards the cab waiting for her, rumbling outside the main entrance to the hospital. The driver she was greeted with was an elderly woman, eyes dazzling with wisdom and kindness.

"Hello, young lady. Where are you off to by yourself?" she smiled.

Jen sighed with relief. _Someone who isn't a potential threat, _she thought to herself, not knowing why.

The taxi rumbled smoothly and peacefully on the newly laid road which wound back to the homeless shelter. The trees blurred into a shade of emerald, olive and forest greens, streamlining past the dusty car window. The soft vibration and rocking of the car gently caused Jen to feel drowsy, closing her eyes in the back seat. Her eyes shot back open when she could feel the high-beam headlights, piercing the twilight, burn into her eyelids. The driver screamed and tried to swerve, but the car was speeding into a head on collision.

There was a powerful bump to the back of the car, away from Jen.

The car was pushed out of the way and onto the kerb, out of harm's way.

When the ambulances were called, Jen stumbled out of the car to see what the hell had hit the car so far off the road. What she saw, was a long, cylinder-esque shape which looked like it had smacked the door of the car. Accompanying it, was the slightly oily mark of a handprint, with unnaturally long fingers. Next to the handprint was a circle with a cross through it, scratched into the paint of the faded yellow taxi.

A spark emitted in the pandaemonium of Jen's mind, yet it faded just as quickly as it came.

Something had saved her life.


End file.
